Religion and Magic
Five Churches of the Alliance Corlia Xerin Neloni Eire Azren The common people of the Alliance of Free Nations view most of the schools of magic with suspicion. The Temple of Mercy is the largest, and is the only church regarded as a true religion by most of the citizens. Maia is regarded as the mother of all and she is prayed to and worshiped by all. Consequently, the priesthood and the magic they utilize are not considered to be of the same kind as the other gods and their disciples. Dyanastos, for example, is viewed more as a kind of warrior superstition. Soldiers on the battlefield, town guards, and other men of arms ask for his guidance and aid, but not in the same way one would pray to a god. The monks of Dyanastos revere him fully as a god in his own right, but the common folk see them as little more than zealous warriors. Uren is seen as a scholarly figure, like a great teacher and mentor who has long since passed on. His disciples are the wizards, who, through study, master the various elemental magics as well as scholarly arts. The druids of Anthem are reclusive keepers of the wild, and their god is seen as little more than a relic of a bygone age of nature worship. His followers worship him as the greatest of all the pantheon because of his place as the lord of the wilderness. The fifth god, Kian, is almost totally unknown to the common folk. His servants are the assassins, thought by many to be godless murderers; they are instead the chief keepers of the balance of power that holds much of the world away from total war. There is in fact a sixth god, who is known to many as the ‘Hidden God.’ It is unknown to the mortals of the world what his aspects are or who his disciples are, or even what his purpose may be, but many of those counted among the Immortals and Sages know that in the end times the ‘Hidden God’ will rise and face the Fiends and the Fates for the souls of all humanity. Church of the Kolvost Empire Kolvograd Ostmark Before the rise of Vladimir III both Kolvograd and Ostmark worship Dyanastos and Kian as the sole gods of their pantheon, as the lords of war and winter respectively. More totem deities than actual gods, their worship usually involved a perversion of the rites used by the monks and hunters of the Alliance, coupled with sacrifices and superstition. After the rise of Vladimir III the church remained unchanged on its surface, but underneath the clergy was replaced by cultists of the False Gods. As the empire has subjugated many people of many different faiths the state religion has always remained the unified Dyanastos/Kian church, though because the empire allows for a freedom of religion as long as tithes are paid, some of the conquered people still practice their faiths, though the poor, who are by far the majority, must now unwillingly and unknowingly worship the Fiends. Grand Pantheon Tiberia Achea The people of the Sapphire Sea nations worship all the gods as an equal pantheon, not favoring any one god over any of the others, but instead paying their respects to the god or gods they wish to appease to gain favor in their domain. The disciples of this pantheon are the same as the five churches, though they are recognized as a single clergy with different branches. Byzantian Church Malakut Bharat The ancient Byzantian Empire worshiped all of the gods as aspects of a single entity. They saw the five individual gods as representations of their single deity, Tarish, the god of glory. Disciples of Tarish are the clerics and the assassins, who operate in a similar manner to the priests and hunters of the Five. Tarish is actually a powerful Fiend, and used his influence over the people of Malakut and Bharat to quickly end their respective wars with the Kolvost Empire. Cult of the Dead Deshret Prior to the fall of Deshret to the Kolvost Empire the people worshipped a diverse pantheon of dozens of deities representing all facets of life and nature. With their pharaoh killed and resurrected, the cult belonging to the god of sacrifice declared him the avatar of their god, and the worship of that god, who is understood to be Uren in another name, became the only religion. The wizards of Deshret are the necromancers, disciples of Uren in his aspect as the death god Urtec. Urtec is actually a powerful Fiend who calls himself the god of sacrifice, and he has fooled mortals in to worshiping him as such; and just as Tarish caused the quick end of Malakut and Bharat, so too did Urtec cause the fall of Deshret. Nobel Houses of Kasei Kasei The nobles of Kasei do not feel that the gods are any more deserving of worship than man and as such they have the people of their nation worship them as divine. The nobles are able to transfer this worship to the gods and act as their disciples, giving them magical abilities. Most are unpracticed and weak, but the warrior nobles, the samurai, are powerful magic warriors. The Empress of Kasei also sanctions the worship of Kian to the select group of his disciples, known as the shinobi. The shinobi are commoners, allowed to gain their power in exchange for strict servitude to the court. The temple of mercy has a following here as well, with priests of Maia given almost full power as nobles, providing their congregation is sizeable enough. The People’s Temple Sanzhou The people of Sanzhou worship the same pantheon as their western counterparts, but instead of the disciples being select members of society, all the people of the nation are allowed to be trained in the magical arts to some extent in a massive temple complex located in all major cities. Those that are powerful enough go on to become generals and strategists in the armies of the three nations. While the training is theoretically open to all, not all can take advantage of it. With most of the common people living in rural areas far from cities, not many can make it to the temples to be trained. Worship of the Dragonkin Xultun Xultun is a nation that is ruled by the oppressive fear and love of the most powerful beings in creation, the dragons. Long-lived and able to use magic without the aid of the gods, the few surviving dragons have raised the nation of Xultun from savagery to a civilized existence, and have been repaid with the worship and adoration usually reserved for the gods. The dragons impart some of their powers on their most trusted servants, transforming them into marked ones, hybrids of man and dragon. Fiend Cults Worldwide The False Gods, in their quest to supplant The Five, have cultivated followers all over the world. Members of every sentient race are among their number, and their cells operate in secret. Currently it is thought that Tarish and Urtec are both fiends who have grown powerful enough to corrupt whole nations, but until it is proven the servants of The Five can do nothing against them.